Mariner Finance expands to new Baltimore County headquarters

Mariner Finance will move its corporate headquarters to Baltimore County later this year, part of a broader planned expansion of the Baltimore-based consumer-loan company.

The recovering economy has boosted the growth of the company, founded in 2002 as a consumer finance-focused subsidiary of First Mariner Bancorp, officials said.

Mariner Finance, which First Mariner sold to a private equity group in 2009, plans to roughly double the number of branches by the end of next year, adding to its 75 locations around the country, the company said. Its new headquarters, the 69,400-square-foot former William Scottsman building at 8211 Town Center Drive in Nottingham, will contain more than four times its current 15,000-square-foot space in Canton.

"This new office space will allow us to accommodate the additional personnel needed to support our growing operation at a location that is convenient to our employees," said Josh Johnson, Mariner President and CEO, in a statement. "We believe that having the opportunity to design it from the ground up will give us a home that fully embodies the Mariner culture, yielding a more positive and productive working environment for our people. We are naturally very excited to see it come to fruition."

The Nottingham location has abundant parking and is convenient for employees forced to battle I-95 traffic during their commutes, marketing manager Kait LeDonne said. The new building will undergo renovation before Mariner Finance moves in. Terms of the lease were not disclosed.

About 100 people work in the current headquarters, including members of the IT, business development and marketing teams, LeDonne said.

Eddie Goldmeier, senior managing director for Newmark Grubb Knight Frank (NGKF) represented Mariner Finance in the transaction and represents the company in its retail leases around the country. Building owner Blue Ocean Realty LLC was represented by Joe Bradley of MacKenzie Commercial Real Estate Services LLC.